A Few Firsts

Woke up this morning and started catching up on this weekend's blog posts.  Greg over at Night Owl Cards wrote about some "personal firsts" which inspired me to get out of bed and hammer out this post.

But since my first response to his "first" topic involves a basketball product, let me first show off this cool Ohtani that he sent recently sent me:

2024 Topps 2023 Greatest Hits #23GH-14

This guy is off to another stellar season at the plate.  Not sure when he'll pitch again, but it sounds like it might be in the second half of the season.  Let's focus on the now and look at Night Owl's first category...

First Blaster Purchased:  1998-99 Upper Deck Basketball

 eBay Image

I have no idea what product had the honor of being my very first blaster box.  Honestly... I'd have to search this blog to tell you my last.  That being said... I do remember going to Walmart with my buddy Mike and grabbing boxes of 1998-99 Upper Deck Basketball.

1998-99 Upper Deck #230d

That's the oldest memory of me going out and purchasing retail/blaster boxes.

First Parallel I Knew:  1975 Topps Minis

Although I have never owned the standard sized version, this 1977 Topps Mini Robin Yount rookie card has been in my collection since the early 80's:

1975 Topps Mini #223

I'm about 90% positive I purchased this in 1982 or 1983.  Is there a chance I learned about the 1984 Topps Tiffany set before this purchase?  Maybe.  But odds are I knew about the 1975 Topps Minis first.

First "Old Card" In My Collection:  1979 Topps Bump Wills

One of my neighbors gave me a shoebox filled with 1979 Topps baseball back in the early 80's.  While my friends and I owned stacks of 1981 Donruss and Topps baseball, I remember thinking how cool it was to own a bunch of these "old" 1979's.

This card stood out:

1979 Topps #369

While I was at the local sports memorabilia store (same store I purchased the Yount at), I learned about this card and his corrected version:

1979 Topps #369

The crazy thing is... I opened packs of 1977 Topps Star Wars, but at the time... the baseball cards felt older.

First Baseball Cards Purchased Through Mail-Order:  1986 Topps Glossy Mail-In

1986 Topps Glossy All-Star #57

This one is a toughie.  I'm 80% sure I sent in some of those special offer cards and ordered one or two of these special Topps mail-in sets.

I might be a year or two off, but I went with 1986 because it's my best guess response.

First Sitcom I Saw:  The Brady Bunch

There are a lot of shows from the 70's that I remember watching with my family.  I definitely watched a lot of Brady Bunch reruns when I was a kid.

1998 DuoCards Happy Days #1

But not exactly sure if that was before or after Happy Days, which we watched on a weekly basis.  Like Greg said in his response... it's "a gray area".

First Big Kid Book I Read:  Forever by Judy Blume

eBay Image

I'm not sure if this counts as a "big kid" book or not, but I remember getting my mom to buy it for me when I was in the 4th or 5th grade.  I remember it was one of those books where one kid at our school read it and word got around that it talked about "sex".  Don't remember the plot, but I definitely remember the cover.

First Cartoon That Freaked Me Out: Not Sure

Heavy Metal (1981) VHS Tape

Can't really think of any cartoons that freaked me out.  I remember watching Heavy Metal and seeing nudity... but I was a teenager when I saw it.  In other words, it didn't freak me out.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

I'll modify the topic by replacing cartoon with "kids movie" and go with Gene Wilder and his chocolate factory tour.  That scene when they're on the boat in the tunnel with salamanders and chickens definitely freaked me out as a kid, but I still watched it over and over.

First Championship for a Favorite Team:  1984-85 Los Angeles Lakers

1983-84 BASF #NNO

One of my fondest sports memories involving my dad was watching the NBA Finals in the 80's with him.  He was a Boston Celtics fan... which shaped me into a Los Angeles Lakers fan.  I was pretty devastated when the Celtics beat the Lakers in 7 games in 1984, but that was the year I really started following basketball.  The following season the Lakers beat the Celtics in six.  Good times.

1984 was a big year for me in regards to sports.  While watching the 1984 World Series (or shortly after)... I adopted the San Diego Padres as my National League team.  Unfortunately they lost in five games to the Detroit Tigers.  But I'll never forget rooting for the Brown & Gold.

Night Owl recently sent me some 1984 Star panels featuring one of the key players from that World Series roster:

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #1 (#'s 1-3)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #6 (#'s 16-18)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #7 (#'s 19-21)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #8 (#'s 22-24)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #9 (#'s 25-27)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #10 (#'s 28-30)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #11 (#'s 31-33)

1984 Star Steve Garvey Panel #12 (#'s 34-36)

These 8 panels are part of a 12 panel set produced by The Star Company.  I really like the simple design and the color matched borders.

Based on the checklist, the missing panels contain Garvey's Dodgers cards:

I love oddball issues like these.    I'm still deciding if I'll keep these panels intact or separate the cards and get these into the Garvey section of my Padres binder.

Greg also sent me a pair of colorful Padres parallels:

2024 Topps Blue Holofoil #2 (#'d 998/999)

2024 Topps Holiday #50

It's been over a year and I'm still trying to figure out what design is featured on this Soto card.  Regardless... it's shiny and pretty.

Speaking of shine, Greg also sent me some A's parallels for my collection:

2024 Topps Archives Black Foilboard #113

2024 Topps Allen & Ginter Chrome Refractor #35

Soderstrom started off hot this year, but has cooled off the past few weeks.  He still leads the team in home runs, RBI's, and slugging percentage.

2024 Topps Holiday Holiday Tree #H127

Hopefully F-Face Fisher will build a playoff caliber team around the twenty-three year old slugger.  Better yet... I hope he sells the team and the new owner builds a team around him.

Thank you Night Owl for the care package and inspiring this post of "firsts".

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #154: Smorgasbord of Stuff

If you're a fan of variety, then this post is right up your alley.  If you're only interested in sports cards... just scroll down to the 3rd purchase.

The De Anza Flea Market is held on the first Saturday of every month.  This is now the third month since it has reopened and they are still struggling to fill up with vendors and visitors.  I think part of the issue this month was the flea market took place on a holiday weekend, so hopefully next month will be better.

The good news is there were a bunch of new vendors who I wasn't familiar with.  five of my six purchases were made from people I've never seen before.

Purchase #1:  70's Map of Mariott's Great America  $3

I'm sure nobody else cares about this map, but this was easily my favorite purchase of the day.  The week leading up to the flea market, Bay Area residents were informed that Great America will be closing its doors sometime in the next eleven years.

This was the theme park I grew up at.  This is the theme park a lot of locals grew up going to.  In a nutshell... this was pretty sad news for a lot of people.

That's why I was super excited to see this folded up map sitting on this guy's table just waiting for me to buy it.  Without seeming too giddy, I asked him how much he wanted.  I couldn't hand over the three bucks fast enough.

The first thing I noticed is that The Demon (one of my favorite rides) wasn't on it, so I knew it was pretty old.  After some research, I discovered that the ride was originally called Turn of the Century, but it was modified and renamed in 1980... which means this map is from 1979 or earlier.

Sorry I blabbed so much about a map nobody cares about.  I'll try and keep the rest of the flea market finds brief and straight to the point.

Purchase #2:  The Famous Baseball Card Book  $2

The Great American Baseball Card Flipping,

Trading and Bubble Gum Book (1st Edition)

I already own two copies of this book (paperback & hardcover), but this copy's dust jacket is a nice upgrade.  Even if it wasn't, I still would have bought it for the price.

Purchase #3:  Pack of Predators  $1

2003 Top Trumps Predators Pack

No idea what this game is, but it's a pack of cards and the price was right.  Don't worry, here come the sports cards...

Purchase #4:  Bag of Cards  $10

This bag was sitting on a tarp partially covered by a paper fan among a bunch of oriental style home furnishings and fishing reels.  Luckily I took a few extra seconds to browse this vendor's stuff, because I never would have spotted the bag if I weren't standing right over it.

After pulling out a small stack of cards, it seemed to contain a mixture of new and old baseball and football cards.  The guy said I could have the bag for $10, which I thought was fair.  When I got to the end of the row, I sat down and pulled everything out to organize the purchase.  That's when I found this card:

1991 Topps #333 (2016 Topps 65th Anniversary Buyback)

I love me some rookie cards... especially when they are stamped as a buyback and depict a first ballot hall of famer.

I would have paid $10 for this card alone... even though it's far from being mint.

Honestly... I could have dedicated an entire post to the contents of this bag, but this post is dragging on long enough.  I'll trim the fat and share five other cards that caught my eye:

1975 Topps #400

There was a small stack of vintage football cards that were in top loaders consisting of three players: Fran Tarkenton, Franco Harris, and Bob Griese.

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen MVP Mini #MVPM-FT

2012 Topps A&G World's Greatest Military Leaders #ML-8

2019 Topps #100

2001 Pacific Paramount Sample #NNO

This Maddux is a mystery.  Pacific didn't release a Paramount baseball set that year and when I searched Beckett and COMC, this card didn't pop up.  Not sure the story behind it, but according to this eBay listing... it's rare.

Rounding out the scans are two memorabilia cards...

In an age where condition is valued by everyone from flippers to grading card companies... it is hard to imagine someone tossing stacks of cards into a bag and dumping them at the flea market for $10.  But I'm sure glad they did.

Purchase #5:  MJ Rookie Card  $6

1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #661

Although I didn't know the guy who sold me this card, he was set up with some of my buddies.  He had a few dollar boxes, but there wasn't really anything that stood out.

I found this Jordan in his display case.  It was a little more than I would typically spend.  But I wanted to buy something to support him and this fits my collection.

Purchase #6:  Heritage Error Cards  $5

After tossing the MJ into the backpack, I walked over to my buddy's booth.

He showed me a stack of 2021 Heritage that contained a few wrong back error cards.  I like this kind of stuff and wanted to support him, so I picked out six of them.  He originally wanted $2 per card, but he settled for a crisp five dollar bill.

If you're trying to wrap your brain around who is paired with who, here's a breakdown:

A.  Guerrero (front) / Hader (back)

B.  Riley (front) / Eflin (back)

C.  Arenado (front) / Yelich (back)

D.  Hader (front) / Guerrero (back)

E.  Eflin (front) / Riley (back)

F.  Turner (front) / Sanchez & Kilome (back)

First off... these aren't rare.  There are plenty of listings on eBay at very affordable prices.  But they are a little mysterious.  Typically Topps changes the code at the bottom for variations.  Yet all of these have the same code as the regular base cards.  If anyone knows the story behind these, feel free to comment on them down below.

Well that wraps up another trip to the flea market.  Sorry it took so long to get this post published.  I'm still playing catch up after a very busy start to the summer.  I'm hitting up another flea market on Saturday, so hopefully I'll have some more finds to write about next week.

Until then...

Did you have a favorite amusement park when you were a kid?

Do you have multiple copies of the same book sitting on your bookshelf?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!